We are in favor of District 200 starting Imagine Project 2 at OPRF High School as soon as possible. As we read letters in the Journal, comments on social media, and words spoken at D200 board meetings from residents who are against Project 2, we notice two consistencies.
There are continuous comments related to: build less, teach less swimming, pay less money. These encourage the bare minimum. This would suggest an education based on mediocracy.
OPRF’s motto is “Those things that are best.” How can we expect students to do their best if those around them are suggesting mediocracy?
There is no plan to build an Olympic-size pool. There is no conspiracy to build a gold-plated teacher’s lounge or enrich the financial advisors guiding the board. But one would think there is a conspiracy from listening to some of the comments against this project. Project 2 is simply what any 21st-century school builds for its students.
There are comments second-guessing the following: the physical education (PE) curriculum that teachers and PhDs with hundreds of years of combined experience have put into place, the design of the building by architects who have spent their entire careers designing schools, the advice of financial experts with decades of experience advising municipalities on how to fund major projects. How is it that a letter writer in the period of a few weeks can be an expert on all these things?
We admit to knowing little about how to set a school curriculum for a school of 3,200 students, how to design and build said school, or how to fund a $100 million construction project. But we do know that relying on people who are experts in their chosen field is the best way to get any project done with excellence.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
For the good of the community, end the conspiracy talk and let the D200 board do the job they were elected to do.
Meg and Jordan Chalmers
River Forest
